Hallelujah
by OutoftheShadow
Summary: A series of unrelated one-shots based on the song Hallelujah by Leonard Cohen


A/N: Sorry it's been so long. My muse just up and left me standing here without so much as a by-your-leave. However, I pushed through and it seems as if I might have gotten the juices flowing again.

This is going to be a series of one-shots, independent of each other that revolve around the characters of Fairy Tail. It will mostly be Lucy and Natsu, but I have planned on Gray making an appearance. There will be five in all, all based on one of the verses in Leonard Cohen's song, Hallelujah.

Disclaimer: I don't own Fairy Tail. That honor belongs to Hiro Mashima. I don't own the song, Hallelujah either. It's Leonard Cohen's and probably some recording label's. The poem near the end is actually song lyrics taken from the song All Hope is Gone. The song belongs to the band Slipknot. In short, I own nothing. Poor me…

_I heard there was a secret chord_

_That David played and it pleased the Lord_

_But you don't really care for music, do you?_

_It goes like this:_

_The fourth, the fifth, the minor fall the major lift_

_The baffled king composing Hallelujah_

Chapter One: The Baffled King

It was impossible, totally impossible. There was no way they were going to be able to bring down the monster. In all their years as mages, they had never encountered a being like this one.

Lucy wondered why they had been sent on this mission in the first place. Why wasn't it an S-Class job? What were those villagers thinking?

Lucy Heartfilia and Natsu Dragneel were standing side by side and Happy was in the middle of their bodies, standing just behind them.

In front of them, about a mile away, was the largest dog that Lucy had ever seen. It was so big that she was sure that it could turn her guild into fire wood with one step of it's paw. It's wiry, pitch black fur was only broken by menacing yellow eyes and a gaping maw full of razor sharp incisors and crushing molars.

The only reason they could see these features was because it had it's attention devoted squared to them, the mages of Fairy Tail, and it was headed their way.

Lucy sent up a prayer to whatever deity would listen. This was going to be the end, she knew it. She could see the headlines now:

Idiot Fairies Killed by Goliath Canine; Suspicions of Mental Illness

Just as the Stellar Spirit mage was sure that she and her best friend and his stupid cat had breathed their last, Natsu rose up as he had never seen him do before.

Natsu knew what sort of danger they were in. He, Happy and Lucy were about to die. All he could think about was what a waste it was that his two favorite people would never see the light of day again.

He would never again give Lucy a back handed compliment. He would never again share a meal with Happy. He would never again get to go on another mission with them.

"Hell no…," he muttered and pushed up his sleeves. Lucy screamed his name as he rushed the behemoth of a dog but he pushed it from his mind and promised himself that he would apologize later for scaring her.

"Loki!," he heard her scream. "Help him, please!"

Natsu saw Loki from the corner of his eye and they nodded to each other.

An hour later found Natsu hissing in pain as Lucy patched his back up. The fight was a close thing. Loki had fallen only a few minutes into the battle. Lucy had called Aries then, and she had fallen, as well. Following her was Taurus and that hadn't lasted long either. After that, Lucy hadn't had the strength to call anymore of her spirits and Natsu was sure she wouldn't have even if she could. Lucy had such a soft heart and hated for her spirits to be harmed.

Natsu had been all alone then, with Lucy screaming at him from the sidelines to just take Happy and leave. The cat could have flown him out of the cave they had fallen into, but Natsu would be damned if he would leave Lucy down in that horrible hell hole. Happy had already been given instructions before he had jumped into the fray to take Lucy and get out if it looked as if he would lose.

It turned out not to be necessary. Just as he was about to yell at Happy to retreat, the dog had made a very large mistake. Apparently, it was also a fire-breathing dog. The canine had sealed it's fate when the first yellow-orange flame had licked its way from his (or her) lungs.

Now he was sitting on a log, trying to figure out if Lucy was trying to heal him or punish him. She had yet to stop cursing him for all he was worth between blotting his back with some sort of stinging liquid.

"We're all alive, right? We're all in one piece."

"That's not the point, you idiot! You could have been killed! How do you think Happy and I would feel if you'd died down in the hole!"

Natsu whipped his neck around to face his feline companion.

"You told her?"

Happy nodded and then went back to chomping on a raw fish. The rest were on sticks over the fire and were just about done.

"Figures. I could never count on him to keep his mouth shut," he muttered.

"I can't believe you made him promise to leave you down there," Lucy scolded as she continued to dab a cotton ball on his shoulders.

"Yeah, well, it didn't exactly look good, did it? What did you expect me to do? I seem to recall you screaming at me to leave you down there, too."

"I was distraught," she mumbled and back away from him after wrapping his injuries in strips of clean cloth.

"You would have done the same and you know it."

Lucy sighed and didn't correct him. It was true, she would have happily done the same and so it wasn't really right for her to argue with him. She nodded and the camp fell silent as they joined Happy in devouring a few fish.

"Oh, this would be great to add into my story," Lucy suddenly said and jumped up from her seat to bound over to her pack. She always kept a notebook with her to write down ideas.

"What part? The almost getting killed by a giant dog or the part where we argued about who would get to live while the other died a gruesome death?"

Lucy rolled her eyes and opened her notebook. "Both," she said and started to scribble on a blank sheet.

After an hour of watching Lucy write, Natsu became bored and just a little irritated.

"How long are you gonna scribble in that damn book?" he asked and poked the fire.

Lucy looked up from her notebook with a narrow-eyed expression.

"I love writing. It helps me clear my head and I get to go back and read all the things I've done and all the moments I've shared with my friends. It's better to keep a diary than it is to take a picture. I don't really keep a diary, but I do write down all of my adventures."

Natsu rolled his eyes.

"You should try it," Lucy suggested and dug another notebook from her pack. She handed it to him and pressed a pencil into his other palm. He scoffed.

"I've never written anything."

"Well, in that case, you really should try it. You might be a great novelist. You never really know until you try."

Natsu nodded. He could sort of get behind a mentality like that. He would wait, though. He could write a little when they got home.

The rest of the night, Natsu watched Lucy as she wrote like a crazy person compelled. He didn't interrupt her again.

"Hey, Natsu. If you haven't written anything in that notebook I gave you, I'll take it back. I ran out of paper last night and I'll just use that one if you're going to let it gather dust."

Natsu finished chewing the rice in his mouth before turning to look at his fellow Fairy Tail mage.

"Sorry, I wrote in it the other night."

Lucy looked very surprised at this declaration.

"Really?" she asked and he nodded before going back to his meal. "Can I read it?"

Natsu shrugged and slipped the notebook from some hidden pocket inside his vest. He handed it to her and turned to ask Mirajane for a second helping.

Lucy raised an eyebrow at his nonchalance. She never let anyone read what she had written until she had looked it over at least fifty times and before it was completely finished. The only exception to the rule was Levy, but that was only because her fellow female Fairy Tail mage helped her find the mistakes that had seemed to slip past her notice. It really was helpful to have a second pair of eyes sometimes.

If Natsu was willing to let her read what he had written, did that mean he didn't really care about what he had written or was it that he trusted her?

Lucy felt her lips curling into a little smile and she opened the notebook.

Natsu's handwriting left something to be desired, but after a few moments of squinting at what could only be described as chicken-scratch, she was finally able to make out the words.

The state of the nation, violation

A broken promise is as good as a lie

The hell is humongous, the devil's among us

And we will burn because we won't unite

We won't witness anymore freedom

What does anyone do with freedom?

I would rather fight than let another die

We are the problem but we are also the solution

If you want you cannot take if from me

If you think you can you still don't know me

Let me tell you, when I said it, I meant it

And I will always have the right to defend it

Lucy read it several times, trying to figure out if she was dreaming or if Natsu had just copied a poem from a book. Finally, she looked up to ask him.

"Natsu, what book did you get this from?"

The dragon slayer's eyebrows dipped down as he once again looked up from his meal.

"I didn't get that from a book. I don't think I even own any books. I just wrote, like you said."

Lucy's eyes widened and she was pretty sure her bottom jaw was somewhere in the vicinity of her lap.

"What?" he asked, looking a little surprised himself.

"Natsu! You wrote this? You? The same guy that, on our first mission together, you let a weak, perverted monkey knock you off a cliff? The same guy that fell into the hole I dug, and now that I look back it was a rather poorly set trap. You? The same guy that got the cat helmet stuck on his head at the Tower of Heaven?

"You can't can expect me…" and she tapered off and the absolutely dumbstruck expression on his face. There was no lie in that face. He really did write it, all by himself.

"This is…" she whispered, running her fingertips over the words that he had written.

"It's not that bad, is it?" he mumbled around the food flying out of his mouth.

"It's not bad, Natsu," she answered, smiling at him. "You should keep writing."

With that, she handed him back the notebook.

"If you write more, can I read it?"

He shrugged again. "Sure."

Lucy shook her head and walked out of Fairy Tail, towards her apartment.

Who would have ever guessed that the same guy that could make her roll her eyes at the idiotic things he said or did sometimes would be the same guy that could make her tear up at the beautiful words he held in his heart?

Thanks for taking the time to read this. I have no idea when the next chapter will be up. I haven't even started writing it yet.

Reviews are love! :D


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